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US 8,911,696 B1Granted
Recycle process for alkaline and carbon zinc batteries
AssigneeRetriev Technologies Incorporated
InventorsW. Novis Smith, James Applegate
Life of this patent
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Abstract
High purity MnO and zinc oxide may be efficiently recovered from alkaline and/or carbon zinc batteries using a process involving the treatment of the crushed batteries with an alkali hydroxide to produce insoluble manganese oxides and an alkali zincate solution. Zinc oxide is obtained by reacting the zinc solution with carbon dioxide or an acid such as a mineral acid and furnacing. The manganese oxides are converted to MnO by furnacing under an inert atmosphere.
Claims23
A process for recycling batteries, comprising the steps of:
- a) crushing batteries selected from the group consisting of alkaline batteries, carbon zinc batteries and combinations thereof to free electrode materials contained therein and to obtain crushed batteries comprised of fine electrode powders and pieces of coarser metal cases;
- b) separating the fine electrode powders from the pieces of coarser metal cases;
- c) reacting the fine electrode powders separated in step b) with alkali hydroxide in the presence of water to dissolve at least a portion of the zinc contained in the fine electrode powders to obtain a zincate solution in combination with insoluble manganese oxides;
- d) separating the zincate solution from the insoluble manganese oxides;
- e) reacting the zincate solution separated in step d) with at least one of carbon dioxide or an acid to precipitate zinc oxide;
- and
- f) combining sulfuric acid with the insoluble manganese oxides separated in step d) to extract out residual zinc compounds and to obtain an acid-extracted manganese oxide product.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.